Hours 2-4

I thought I posted this on February 6th, but it was only saved as a draft.

Today was the first day I started hands on massaging. My sister, Sarina, volunteered to be my first subject. We arrived at Mang Adring's home office at 4 P.M. and proceeded the session until 6 P.M.

 I was preparing myself to learn the different techniques, but once my sister got on the massage table, Mang Adring handed my the oil and simply said, "Start." I was really surprised and nervous, but he was serious. Mang Adring has massaged me countless times, but I got lost once he said to start.

First, Mang Adring would do the techniques on my sister first. "Like this," he said. So after he demonstrated, I followed suit and tried to copy him as best as I could. My sister was a great help because she told me how to adjust after trying each technique. I was really surprised because I really didn’t have any sort of practice except trying to copy him based off the massages he gave me. With Mang Adring’s permission, I video recorded the massage lesson as a reference for when I start practicing on my own, but I won’t post it for the sake of my sister’s privacy.

Mang Adring started off by showing me how and what to do first and then I would follow suit. I kept mental notes of each technique and tried to copy him as best as I could. I constantly asked “Like this? Like that?” just to make sure I was doing right.

We started my sister’s back, neck, head, and continued on to her lower body. 

According to my sister, I massaged the same areas and points that Mang Adring did, but my hands were a lot weaker. Mang Adring said that I need to practice in order to perfect my technique and strengthen my hands. There were certain areas that I did well in, such as down the spine and the legs and calves, but I need a lot of practice.

A big lesson I learned was where to apply pressure on my fingers. At first I used the flat part of my fingers, but I learned that using the tips of my fingers was more effective. Looking at the video now, I see the difference between Mang Adring’s firm hands versus my inexperienced, light hands.

Mang Adring explained that my hands will only get stronger with practice. Once he believes I'm ready, he said that he'll teach me how to mix the oils.

A regular usually lasts an 45 minutes to an hour, but since this was a massage combined with a lesson, this session stretched to two hours. Once it ended, I took the opportunity to interview Mang Adring. This interview will be posted in a separate post.